Around the State

• Houston Baptist University elected its first three non-Baptist trustees—Terry Looper, founder, president and chief executive officer of Texon LP who is a trustee and elder at Grace Presbyterian Church in Houston; Tadd Tellepsen, president of Tellepsen Corporation and a member of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Houston and trustee of its Wayside Chapel and Urn Garden; and Charlie Ward Jr., retired NBA player and Heisman Trophy-winning head football and assistant basketball coach at Westbury Christian School and a member of The Greater Houston Church. The HBU board voted in March to amend the university’s bylaws to open up to one-fourth of its positions to non-Baptist Christians.

• Baylor University was the only university in Texas named “with distinction” to the 2010 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll, the highest federal recognition a university can receive for its commitment to volunteering, service-learning and civic en-gagement. Two other Baptist General Convention of Texas-affiliated schools were named to the honor roll—Dallas Baptist University and East Texas Baptist University.

• Baptist Child & Family Services’ inner-city project to help West Side San Antonio students and families, Guadalupe Street Coffee, has reopened after seven months of renovations. A grant funded a new learning lab, updated computers, a commercial kitchen, additional space for community events and other items. Fewer than 3 percent of the homes surrounding the coffee shop have computers.

• Baylor University conferred 1,678 bachelor’s degrees, 326 master’s degrees and 26 doctoral degrees during May commencement ceremonies.

• The University of Mary Hardin-Baylor presented degrees to a record 346 students during the spring commencement ceremony. Three hundred and four students received bachelor’s degrees, while 29 received master’s degrees and 13 earned doctoral degrees.

• One hundred twenty-two students received degrees at Howard Payne University during the spring graduation ceremony. That number included 115 receiving bachelor’s degrees, two receiving associate’s degrees and five receiving master’s degrees, including the first three students to receive the master of education in instructional leadership de-gree from HPU.

• East Texas Baptist University graduated 148 students during two commencement ceremonies.

• Dallas Baptist University granted degrees to 659 students, including 402 undergraduate degrees, 255 master’s degrees and two doctoral degrees. John Ford received an honorary doctor of humanities degree.

• Hardin-Simmons University presented degrees to 282 students during two spring commencement ceremonies. Of that number, 47 received master’s degrees. Homer Taylor and Tom Mosley received honorary doctor of humanities degrees.

• Baptist University of the Américas graduated its largest bachelor of arts class and awarded its first honorary doctorate during spring commencement ceremonies. Thirty-four students received bachelors degrees, and 41 students received certificates in biblical studies. Alcides Guajardo received an honorary doctor of divinity degree “for a lifetime of honoring God by using his mind to the fullest to know God and make him known and for using his heart to show us all what a servant leader looks like,” BUA President René Maciel said.

• Wayland Baptist University presented degrees to 134 students on its Plainview campus. Bachelor’s degrees totaled 101, master’s degrees 32, and one student earned an associate’s degree.

• Houston Baptist University awarded 203 degrees during spring commencement ceremonies—162 graduate degrees and 41 graduate degrees. Retiring professor of Christianity Gene Wofford also was named professor emeritus. He joined the HBU faculty in 1975.

• San Marcos Academy awarded its exemplary service medal to Paul Powell, dean emeritus of Truett Theological Seminary in Waco, and Bobby Dupree, the academy’s vice president for development, during the school’s 103rd commencement ceremony.

Anniversaries

• Toby Irwin, fifth, as pastor of Belmore Church in San Angelo, June 4.

• Fort Phantom Church in Abilene; 20th, June 26. Robert Newton is pastor.

• Emmanuel Church in Hoensbroek, The Netherlands, 35th, July 13-15. The celebration will take place at Southwestern Seminary.

Deaths

• J.B. Young, 95, May 21 in Wimberley. He was pastor emeritus of First Church in Wimberley, where he served from 1951 to 1955 and from 1958 until his retirement in 1982. He was a survivor of Pearl Harbor and retired from the U.S. Air Force after flying 66 combat missions in World War II. He was one of the most decorated men in the Air Force, and his portrait hangs in the Pentagon. He was preceded in death by his wife, Arline; son, Alton; daughter, Linda; and grandson, Ty. He is survived by his sons, Cary and Gary; sister, Velma Fling; three grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

• John Jonsson, 86, May 26 in South Africa. He was an emeritus professor of religion and former director of the African studies program at Baylor University. A native South African, Baptist pastor and scholar, he protested apartheid from the pulpit, the classroom and in other public forums. He was the only Baptist minister to sign the Kairos Document, a plea to churches to demand an end to racial segregation. Jonsson grew up in South Africa, where his parents were Scandinavian missionaries a-mong the Zulu people. He served the Baptist World Alliance for more than two decades as a member of its Human Rights Commission. He taught at Baylor University from 1992 until his retirement in 2002. He was preceded in death by his son, David. He is survived by his wife, Gladys; daughters, Lois and Sylvia; son, Sven; and seven grandchildren.

• Bruce Belin Jr., 84, May 27 in Houston. He was a founding member of Tallowood and Pecan Grove churches in Houston, and he was a long-time member of Second Church there. A real estate developer, he created the Belin Foundation to start churches in all his master-planned communities. A former chair of the Houston Baptist Unversity board of trustees, he was appointed to the board in 1967 and was one of the original members of the President’s Development Council. He also served on the board of the Cullen Trust for Higher Education, where he helped award millions of dollars in grants to capital projects on the HBU campus, including the Morris Cultural Arts Center. The Belin Chapel in the Morris Center was named in his honor. HBU awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1998, and he received HBU’s highest honor, the Spirit of Excellence Award, the same year. In 2005, he was presented the Milton Cross Service Award. Most recently, he made a lead gift in his wife’s honor to expand the Mary Ann Belin Nursing and Allied Health Simulation Lab on the HBU campus. He was preceded in death by his brothers, Doug and Gary. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Mary Ann; son, Greg; daughter, Laurie Mahl-mann; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

• H.B. Ramsour Jr., 100, May 28 in Dallas. He died two days after undergoing surgery for a broken hip. He was president emeritus of Baptist University of the Américas, where he served as president from 1960 to 1976 and oversaw the school’s move from downtown San Antonio to its present South Side location. He also led the process of the institution becoming part of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the construction of seven of the eight current campus buildings. In 1939, the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention commissioned Ramsour and his wife as missionaries to Japan. Rising military tensions caused them to be expelled from the country a year later. The family barely made it to the pier in time to board the last ship carrying Americans to safety. Coworkers who missed the ship died in concentration camps. After leaving Japan, the Ramsours served in Argentina and then in Hawaii. He was a graduate of Howard Payne University and Southwestern Seminary. He is survived by his wife, Violet; son, David; daughters, Carolyn Mosley and Jeanne Horne; seven grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.

Licensed

• Jay Kott to the ministry at Shiro Church in Shiro.

Ordained

• Chris Brister, Sastry Meesala and Cody Miller to the ministry at First Church in Duncanville.

Correction

• Katrina Fritz-Mills of Telephone was mentioned in the May 23 edition of the Baptist Standard for being honored as Senior Call-Out Girl. The school naming her such should have been East Texas Baptist University, not University of Mary Hardin-Baylor as was published.